State-run Gazprom made a surprise announcement Monday that it will develop the Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea on its own. It said it will pump most of the deposit's gas to Europe, via the Nord Stream pipeline leading from Russia to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea.
"None of the foreign companies succeeded in offering assets commensurate with plans to develop the Shtokman deposit's reserves," Putin said.
However, he said Gazprom will consider a limited role for foreign companies in the development of the deposit and the liquefying of natural gas.
"I do not exclude the possibility that Gazprom could engage foreign companies to develop and partially liquefy of [natural] gas," he said.
Gazprom controls a project to develop the giant Shtokman field, which holds an estimated 3.2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 31 million metric tons of gas condensate in the Barents Sea, and to build an LNG plant there. Some $12-14 billion will be invested in the project's first phase, and production will start in 2011.
A shortlist of companies competing for the project unveiled last September included Norway's Statoil and Norsk Hydro, France's Total, and U.S. giants Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
